Palin Bashing Pile-On

H/t to Chicks on the Right for sending up this ridiculous Maureen Dowd column.

For an overall look at the phenomenon of Palin-bashing, and Dowd's attempt in particular, it's hard to top what they say here. Tam had an interesting take, too, comparing the Palin-Bashing to Orwell's official state-sponsored hate object, Emmanuel Goldstein.

But there's one passage of Dowd's drivel that really needs an additional comment.

“Several told me, independently of one another,” Purdum writes, “that they had consulted the definition of ‘narcissistic personality disorder’ in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — ‘a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy’ — and thought it fit her [Palin] perfectly.”

As anyone who's gone to medical or nursing school can tell you, perusing the DSM-IV can be extremely misleading. The diagnostic criteria for psych disorders - particularly personality disorders - read like a laundry list of personality flaws, human weaknesses, and annoying habits. Anyone who's read the DSM without wondering whether at least one or two of the diagnoses apply to him- or herself is a spectacularly arrogant and unreflective soul. Even - or perhaps especially - for the arrogant and unreflective, it is easy to flip through the pages and find a perjorative-sounding diagnosis or two for anyone whom one considers personally disagreeable.

The idea, therefore, that a bunch of liberal journalists and their friends could wander uninformedly through the DSM-IV and come up with a diagnosis for Sarah Palin is hardly newsworthy, let alone diagnostically reliable.

Besides, I thought that being mentally ill was a highly admirable disability among lefty circles? If Sarah Palin really were mentally ill, wouldn't that put her in a Protected Class of Special People Who Cannot Be Criticized? In fact, being female and disabled should make Palin uniquely qualified for high office, at least by Dowd's standards.

Just for fun, I picked up a DSM-IV and tried to find a diagnosis that doesn't apply to Dowd. Still looking...